As someone who has worked in the mainstream media — and that's not a dirty word! — for 10 years, including a stint at CQ (and, yes, Brian Nutting is a supremely good guy), I agree that that ownership is corporate, and unfortunately more and more so in the past 20 years; gone are the single-family-owned newspapers where the mission was more important than superfat profit margins and where employees were treated like human beings (what a shocking, and very-un-corporate-HR concept!).

But most of the reporters and editors I've known are driven by a somewhat idealistic desire (“somewhat” because they're not naive) to see our democracy thrive — that's what a free press does. We newsroom people are the antithesis of corporate, in behavior and outlook, and our choice of profession makes that clear: All of us could earn more working as technical writers/editors for defense companies or in the communications department of investment firms, but we don't, because that would conflict with our values.

And by the way, DJ, you might want to stop being an insensitive jerk, given that most of us are grieving profoundly these days; a lot of us have the mega-stress of no money, no job/no sense of purposefulness, and no job prospects because the ratio of seekers to openings is about 10 times what it was even five years ago. These changes have come so rapidly (the past year has been a particular bloodbath) that most of us haven't been able to transition into other careers. And we're not just suffering in the wallet; many of us are grieving over the rapid deterioration and death of the profession we love — it's no less painful than the deterioration/death of a parent. So, basically, DJ, howsabout you gather some facts, or at least think a little, before you start typing your hateful and stupid posts?

ROFL!! The 44 editors and writers who lost their jobs didn't choose to work for “The Economist.” (Not that it would make any difference if they had.) “The Economist” acquired CQ in July, and the layoffs occurred last week — two months later — after employees had been assured the company was doing well financially.

Again, I don't know why you think that the mere fact of being employed by a company that is owned by or is part of a corporate entity means that you have no sympathy for people in low-paid menial jobs, or that you have it coming if you are laid off. A lot of very sympathetic people work at the Washington Post and at Slate, which is owned by the WaPo. Eugene Robinson and Ezra Klein are among them. Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann and Ed Schultz all work for MSNBC. Are they heartless supporters of exploiting hotel workers, too? If you say no they're not, you're only saying that because those individuals are famous enough for you to know what they stand for and what they believe. For you to assume that 44 nameless, faceless people are corporate hacks who all operate on the philosophy of “I'm all right, Jack,” shows an astonishing failure of imagination, not to mention basic fairness.

If you think these 44 people should stand in for the entire institution of “the press” and thus conclude that “if it was good enough for other people, it's good enough for them” and you “have no sympathy,” then it's certainly not in my humble authority to stop you or change your mind.

That said, I have lost a significant amount of respect for you over this. (Not that you're devastated by that, I'm sure.)

The 44 editors and writers who lost their jobs are not the Corporate-Owned Media. The people who laid them off and who fired their editor for speaking up in their defense are the Corporate-Owned Media.

From your story:

The email demanded answers and clarification from upper management regarding the layoffs and falsities surrounding the Economist’s acquisition of CQ.

If the economist isn't Corporate Media, I don't know what is…

Acquisition, followed by layoff of “Redundant Personnel” is standard procedure.

I don't understand your reaction, Don Quijote, not from you. From someone else, sure, but not from you.

With a tiny handful of exceptions, the press has sat on the sidelines and cheered on all the Mergers, Acquisition and Layoffs of the last thirty years. If it was good enough for other people, it's good enough for them. I have no sympathy…

I am stunned at a response like this from you of all people, Don Quijote, which is why I used that abbreviation, which I should not have. I read your comment twice, thinking that I must be reading it wrong, missing something.

You don't even know these people. How do you know what they wrote or what they think or feel about corporate-owned media? They were just trying to make a living, and certainly not on CEO salaries. Brian Nutting said goodbye to 27 years worth of severance pay out of loyalty to the people he worked with who had lost their jobs. He could have stayed and protected his own backside, but he didn't.

Why do you say, “Maybe now reporters will have a little more sympathy for people like these” when you don't know that they don't! I mean, how do you just turn 44 human beings you don't know into this big unit of something or other that you know everything there is to know about them?

I don't understand your reaction, Don Quijote, not from you. From someone else, sure, but not from you.

WTF?

The Corporate Owned Media spent the last forty years writing and celebrating mass layoffs, downsizing, and righsizings, it was good for business…

Now it's their turn…

Maybe reporters will have a little more sympathy towards people like this…

On Aug. 31, staffers learned the full story: None of them would be making the beds and cleaning the showers any longer. All of them were losing their jobs. The trainees, it turns out, were employees of a Georgia company, Hospitality Staffing Solutions, who were replacing them that day.

…

Loux said the new workers will make $8 an hour and receive no benefits, based on information from a Hospitality Staffing Solutions employee. Staffing firm president Rick Holliday sent out an e-mail stating his employees made competitive wages but didn’t answer further questions.

What goes around comes around…

I don't remember to hearing to many press people saying much of anything when blue collar America got sold down the river so that Corporate America could improve it's ROI by a couple of percentage points…

Cry me a river…